For members of the Brant Curling Club, the message of the 18th
annual Curl for Stroke hit close to home.Although Angelo Mancini, Bill Page and Mark Singleton don't
want any accolades, their heroics created awareness for automated
external defibrillators and saved a friend's life.Last Wednesday, Bill Park suffered a heart attack while
watching men's league action at the club, which was hosting the Curl
for Stroke a couple of days later.

Curling clubs are full of senior
citizens being active. That's great. However, due to the activity and
the population that curling clubs serve, there is a bit of an
increased risk of a member having a heart attack. An AED can save a
life.

All three had plenty of training on using the AED since the
curling club received one a couple of years ago."It was all so surreal," Singleton said."You'd like to talk big and say you weren't scared but we
were. We were just doing what we could. All I was thinking about was
please don't die on us."The hours of training kicked in for the men, as did their
instinct."I don't know why we did what we did, but when it was time
to do CPR, Mark just did it," Page said."At the beginning, I didn't know if I'd remember how do it
all, and, honestly, it just came to me. It's funny because when
you're in those classes, you never really think you'll need to
remember it all. But we did. And when we were doing it, we did
exactly what it (AED) was telling us even if we couldn't hear it."

They cost about $2,000, so it will cost
a bit of money, but a strong fundraiser or two and it can be paid
for.

Consider bringing up that there is a
need for an AED at the next curling club AGM. A life could depend on
it.

While what happened Wednesday was strange timing because
February is Heart Month, and the Curl for Stroke Bonspiel was about
to take place."When we hooked him up to the machine, I looked up a
couple of times and all I saw was the Heart and Stroke signs
everywhere," Page said."The timing was just strange."Unfortunately, the incident is all too familiar for Brant
Curling Club members."This is the second time in two years something like this
has happened," Singleton said."Last year it happened on the ice. It's just strange
timing and something you wish didn't happen. But it's a reality and
we all have to know what to do if it does."And that's why much of Friday's bonspiel was devoted to
awareness, which included a demonstration on how to use the AED."It's pretty important to have an AED here," Page
said."In all honesty, I don't think just CPR would've brought
him back. The fact the defibrillator is here, was deployed as quick
as we could, and the fact that all three of us were trained made a
difference. That's the message people need to understand. They need
to know they are available and need to know how to use them."Mancini said that the people in the community who worked to
make AEDs available should be applauded."Now the big push is to let people know they are out
there," Mancini said."We all know they save lives, and although there have been
people not as fortunate as Bill, saving one life is making a huge
difference."